Blinding Light - Session 1

00:13 - An entirely innocent use of an incredibly cursed object.

00:22 - This useless lesbian being fucking useless.

00:30 - I read a great paper back in my anthropology degree.

00:36 - What does Bastard have going for him? When we ended our last session, technically between sessions, we rolled the Seasons Change move for spring and got a 10 plus, I believe, an 11 on it, and that means that you got to choose a seasonal boon. And in this case, what you chose or what you asked for was useful information or interesting news.

01:10 - So in this session, we will be kind of zooming in and starting off in the in town, getting to know our heroes a little bit, getting to know the town in actual play a little bit, and then there will be some interesting news.

01:26 - So my question for you, Eilwen, is you’ve got some surplus left in the granary, but it was a close thing.

01:35 - What happened to make you fret about running out over the winter or the last few months and then what did you do or get others to do to turn things around? Sometime around midwinter, there was a a really bad snowstorm and part of the roof collapsed and uh, quite a bit of snow got in and ruined probably half of the the barley that we had.

02:09 - It was just mush and unusable, and by the time we got everything dug out was just we had to basically chuck it.

02:21 - And it made getting through the rest of the season a very near thing, and in fact, the hunters managed to go out on a midwinter trip and snag a large game animal that we ended up being able to smoke in the middle of winter, that significantly increased our ability to feed everybody? Korina, what, ah, you’re one of the hunters, right? So what what do you think you got like big game that would be out there? Deer, of course, if you can find them.

03:02 - Wisents, which are, if you’re not familiar with that, those are basically a forest buffalo, boars, feathered drakes and bears? I think probably it was a wisent.

03:16 - Those bones like stayed in a pot for basically the rest of winter.

03:20 - Oh, they’re still there. It’s still going.

03:25 - Give me just a quick insight into Eilwen’s reaction on realizing what had happened.

03:33 - Oh, she had a complete breakdown, like in the the the not-collapsed corner of the granary is just like was just like sobbing in a corner.

03:46 - And trying to figure out how this was going to happen and just could not get herself together for like a solid 10 minutes.

03:56 - Did someone get you out of it or did you get yourself out of it and then kind of take charge? I feel like someone got me out of it or at least showed up and like showed concern and gave a grounding point for the panic attack to stop.

04:14 - All right. I think it might have been Alix? Cool. So kind of jumping ahead, Korina.

04:20 - Obviously, you did get out into the woods once during the winter.

04:23 - What meager quarry have you and Caradog – Caradoc been able to snag over the last, you know, the last few days? Probably just a lot of like game hens, like birds.

04:37 - She was we were probably aiming for something more significant, but honestly, it’s been as much Caradoc, if not me, like him flushing birds out, and me being able to catch them.

04:52 - What’s your favorite thing about being out in the woods? What’s your favorite thing about being out in the Great Wood.

05:00 - The Great Wood is interesting because we have this pact with the Forest Folk supposedly.

05:10 - How long ago did the Forest Folk disappear? The last time anyone remembers seeing one of the Forest Folk and like the last time there’s been a confirmed sighting, not counting Rhiannon because her story, like what she says, doesn’t count.

05:27 - But the last time, like like everyone agrees that, yeah, there was there were Forest Folk around was about 10 years ago.

05:34 - So Korina has only been in town for five.

05:37 - Right. So as far as she’s concerned she’s like, I don’t know what this Forest Folk bullshit is, but we have this pact with these Forest Folk, whatever those are, that we won’t touch these living trees.

05:50 - But that means that there’s a lot of mature trees in this forest, like it is a deep old forest and it has a personality.

05:58 - So it’s just a very peaceful. And she appreciates the the depth and the solitude that the woods have.

06:06 - Alix. So what’s your favorite part of harvesting the winter tubers every spring? And what is your role in that process? I think it’s the smell.

06:18 - And having, like, warm, damp earth in their hands is just like deeply…

06:24 - It both really reminds them of having, like, warm, damp blood on their hands and like a very different smell, like it is both at the same time, very like that, but also a distinctly different thing that is a lot nicer.

06:38 - I think their role in that process is nothing particularly special.

06:41 - Like I think they’re just another person out in a field.

06:44 - There is also a kind of a kind of a comfort in that.

06:48 - They don’t have to be like, extraordinary in a like really awful way anymore.

06:54 - I know you mentioned when we were creating characters that you do, that Helior is worshiped through songs and hymns.

07:03 - Yeah. Like do you, do you. Like do you and the other farmers when you’re digging, do you sing? Yeah, I think there is probably like a Stonetop work song to kind of like keep everyone on pace with, like, the, you know, the slow line marching across the potato field.

07:20 - Yeah. Like, I you know, I don’t think it’s a Lygosi song.

07:23 - It’s not a devotional song. And I think singing in general is also just like a thing that is quite special to Alix and that brings them a lot of joy.

07:32 - You have a good voice? They’ve like a good voice, but not a trained voice, if that makes sense.

07:37 - Mm hmm. Yep, I know I’ve known many.

07:40 - Like, you know, and like they and they like they really love singing. And like they, the passion is really what carries it.

07:48 - Cool. So I’m picturing Alix and a bunch of farmers like kind of as we pan over like.

07:57 - Yeah. Powyl– Hands in the dirt. Powyl is probably there and like Powyl’s kids.

08:01 - And Powyl’s kids are sort of like bumping around all over, like kind of running back and forth, running the tubers to the, to the, to the, the wheelbarrows.

08:10 - And so that’s like kind of our establishing shot, right? We see like maybe a day or two of, like the sun is coming up, the sun coming down, people going out to the fields, coming back into the fields, work starting to shift and Eilwen, they’ve just started scattering the seed for the barley and oats in the south field.

08:37 - And the village children have been spending the last couple of days as they scatter the seed, the children’s job is to throw rocks at birds and crows and starlings in particular, to to kind of keep them away from from from the seed.

08:55 - My question for you is, how long has it been since you did that job with the other kids? And what do you miss either the most about it or what do you miss the least about it? Well, I’ve been doing this job since I was eight, so I assume the last time I did that was the year before.

09:21 - And. You know what, I really don’t miss them teasing me about my arm.

09:28 - I have no throwing arm to speak of.

09:31 - I uh, I would try and the those rocks would not get very far.

09:41 - What do you think your role then is like for this part of it? Probably figuring out like which how much we can spare for for seed, like an actual seeding of the fields, possibly doing some work with like crop rotation and that sort of thing.

10:02 - You basically have a third of the fields being rotated every season.

10:06 - Korina, there’s a dangerous beast in the woods near Stonetop, something that does not usually roam this close to town.

10:16 - And we’re not talking about something that’s going to ruin the town or anything like that, just there’s something out there that is, you know, not not usually there but you and the other hunters and trappers are kind of on guard about it.

10:34 - But what is it or what do you at least think it is and how do you know this or why do you believe this? I think she’s worried it could be a rage drake.

10:44 - Oh god. Saw a like, a particularly large track, and then also some evidence of something passing through the woods.

10:55 - Yeah. So the claw print that you found, it looks more like a bird print than a like a bear print.

11:04 - It is probably. I don’t know, like 18 inches from end to end.

11:14 - And the the thing that’s really kind of alarming to you was the depth of it, right? Just like how [squelching noise] into the into the mud the thing was.

11:26 - How heavy whatever it was had to be to leave a print that deep.

11:29 - It’s got to be at least six, seven feet tall.

11:34 - And like that could be a good 20 feet long, depending on how big the the tail is.

11:42 - On the plus side, all the stories say that they don’t fly.

11:49 - Yay? When you got back to town and shared notes with the other trappers and hunters, there’s like somebody was like I found this horrible and then you’re like, ha ha ha! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:06 - And Dagmar definitely like kind of piped up, he’s like “Hmm.

12:12 - Sounds like a cynddaraig. “ And everyone is like, ohhhhhh, about that.

12:20 - All right, cool. Alix, kind of zooming in on today, so some of the farmers have been sowing and others are planting beans and spring taters, but you have been hard at the backbreaking work of plowing the fallows.

12:45 - So. You talked about your favorite part of picking the spring taters or the spring tubers, what’s your least favorite part about plowing the fallows? Alix does not have a lot of staying power, right? Like they took they took a wound.

13:06 - You know, 18 years ago, or some something to the side that, like, healed okay? But I think like.

13:15 - You know, for whatever reason, like maybe it maybe it nicked a lung, like they just like, you know, working hard all day, pulling a plow or like steering a like stupid horse is just like backbreaking, really unpleasant labor that like, by the end of the day, just leaves them completely, like, wrung out.

13:38 - And everybody else in town is looking at you is like, well, of course you’re the one who’s going to do this. You’re built like a mountain.

13:45 - And the other part of it probably, too, is just that it’s lonely, right? Like, it’s not like sowing a field where you need a whole line of people to do it. And everyone’s like chatting back and forth.

13:55 - Like typically when you like harrow a field or you plow a field like it’s one person per field, and there’s no one to talk to except the stupid horse.

14:04 - Maybe a kid running around, like digging up little field stones here and there.

14:08 - Yeah, but like, you know, it’s not the same.

14:15 - How do you get on with the horses? This horse. Yeah, I this horse is a bit of a bastard.

14:22 - You got a name for the horse? Bastard.

14:29 - He’s just like a real, real stubborn, real stubborn piece of work.

14:34 - Which is where I guess it helps that like, which is probably why Alix like gets given this horse a lot, right? Because, like, they’re like just their sheer size and weight means that, like, even just by leaning on the horse, they are more capable of, like, making it go a direction it doesn’t want to than most people in town.

14:52 - Yup. I think, I don’t think this horse is particularly fond of anyone, but I thought this horse particularly dislikes me.

14:59 - All right, so Bastard the horse. Let’s jot down this vital NPC.

15:05 - That, it’s going on the list. I mean, obviously, Stonetop only has two horses, so it’s not like they’ve got a big choice here.

15:12 - But what does Bastard have going for him? Bastard I think like Alix is like, Bastard’s a big horse.

15:20 - Okay. Like big, big Clydesdale. We kind of like look up from Alix like.

15:28 - Just y’know like like, turning Bastard around kind of at the end of the day is the sun starting to get low, like having just finished plowing through that, that field or at least that chunk of field that you were working.

15:40 - And we see like the kind of like line of farmers heading in from scattering seed with Eilwen hanging at the back with your da, Gethin and Mirg kind of coming along with you.

15:57 - And what kind of tall tale do think Gethin is telling you as you and Mirg head towards home? I mean, it’s got to be something about the the last encounter he had with a rage drake, right.

16:17 - Do you think he’s trying to scare you or do you think he’s playing it up? I think Eilwen thinks he’s trying to scare her.

16:26 - So, yeah, I think you guys are basically like trudging in and it’s not that far right, because you’re going to, you know, just kind of coming in from here.

16:35 - So Gethin, da, is telling the story about the rage drake and getting kind of all intense and Mirg is normally like kind of joshing around back with him when he’s telling these stories, like playing, the playing, the the I guess the straight man for for lack of a better term.

17:02 - And “no! wha? no!” That kind of thing, and this time he– they are just.

17:10 - They’re just quiet, right? And like, like occasionally Gethin kind of looks at them as like y’know like kind of expectantly like.

17:22 - And then and Mirg, just kind of smiles and and “yeah, yeah, yeah da,” and and then, you know, gets that distant look in his face and, you know.

17:37 - And, you know, Gethin seems to see– tell that, like he can tell that something’s wrong, but he’s, y’know it’s a 14 year old kid.

17:44 - He’s not going to you know, he’s going to give them a little give them a little bit of space.

17:49 - And so Gethin kind of turns back to his attention on on you.

17:57 - But like. What do you what do you do, what do you say or do you say anything to, to Mirg? I don’t think I would put them on blast in front of da like that.

18:10 - Might pull them aside later? Might just let it go.

18:16 - As you all get back to your house like Gethin goes in, right? And yells out, you know, basically the the honey, I’m home to Emrys and Parry.

18:24 - We, the audience get a glimpse of the Eilwen family home with like this weird fucking skull and antlers on the wall.

18:33 - Does Eilwen like, do you have to take anything back to the granary, or are you done for the day? I’ve got some tablets or something like that that I’ve been keeping track of stuff on.

18:45 - And I just I don’t feel comfortable keeping that at home because there’s just, there’s this is the tannery, too, right? You take Mirg with you or do you go by yourself? They hesitate at the door and they’re usually off jogging with me.

19:00 - And I think that’s when I think that’s when I ask, yeah, aren’t you aren’t you coming? They kind of like step out a little bit and look kind of meaningfully towards the shed and look at you and then.

19:15 - Yeah, yeah. You know, OK. Yeah, sorry.

19:18 - And not so much of a jog, just more like not plodding like they don’t seem like they’re mopey or lethargic or anything, just not there’s no urgency to them.

19:29 - So yeah. You’re kind of like wandering the path.

19:31 - Powyl and his family are all like their house is just like a riot of noise and like kids and family like, like shouting at each other and a little bit of AAAHHHH and then, you know, like descending into giggling and, you know, like one of the kids, like kind of like EHEHEH at you like probably the smallest one.

19:50 - But as you go past that and around and through the ring wall and just this like gentle bustle of the village at night or village at sunset as people are kind of heading back home and 50 different families all starting to sit down to their own little dinners.

20:08 - But Mirg still has that quiet, distant feel to him.

20:14 - You say anything to him or to you to just be with him? I think this has been this has been a pattern for about a week now.

20:25 - And I think we’ve finally gotten to the point where Eilwen has had enough of this very weird, like, are you just being 14 or is this is there something to this? Like, do you need space or am I going, or do we need to, like, punch this out or something like that.

20:50 - And Mirg I think, you know, like you kind of have this conversation maybe as you’re rounding the corner to the pavilion that’s in the background.

20:56 - And he– they just kind of like, like I’m doing right now.

21:05 - I. I just feel. Off. Like my.

21:14 - I think it feels kind of like I’m dreaming? Hey.

21:22 - It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine and.

21:27 - I think I just need to sleep more. And you can you can tell that they are not fine, right? Like there’s, there’s no doubt in your mind that that’s just not willing to either, not admitting to themselves that they’ve got a problem or not being willing to admit it to you.

21:52 - What do you do? Ah, go for the element of surprise, grab them by the scruff of the neck and attempt to drag them into the public house.

22:08 - Because desperate times require desperate measures.

22:16 - I think– Recall I am four ten and ninety five pounds soaking wet.

22:21 - Right. And and my visualization of Mirg is basically Peeta from The Hunger Games? So just like a brick of a young person, but they are not expecting it.

22:39 - And you know, you’re their, their little big sister.

22:45 - So yeah. Like you actually get a laugh out of them and he’s like fine, fine, fine, fine.

22:54 - And they smile a little bit, which is a perfect segue to Korina.

23:00 - And by the way, side thought, Alix feel free to jump in at an appropriate point as you are bringing the orneriest of ornery horses back to this place.

23:13 - So feel free to stop in for a drink whenever whenever it makes sense.

23:17 - But Korina you are, I’m assuming you’re you’re in the pub. It’s not busy because like most folk are back like basically like coming in from the fields and going to their, like their families for dinner and whatnot.

23:38 - So the folks that are, that tend to gather at the public house right at sunset, tend to be the ones who don’t have a lot of family.

23:49 - So like Dagmar is there, right? And– the the old retired hunter.

23:56 - Obviously Ceridwyn is there. Does Ceridwyn have family in town? I suspect she does.

24:01 - I suspect she’s got like, I think her brother has a family? Her brother might be the cobbler actually.

24:11 - So I think her brother is married and has a couple kids.

24:18 - But she’s not married, right? Correct.

24:22 - Was she ever or like as far as you know? She talks about she used to have a young man, but he left town and went to Marshedge on like a trading trip and then just didn’t come back.

24:38 - Oh wow, OK. Did she ever find out what happened? He decided to stay in Marshedge.

24:45 - That sucks. You said it was maybe like 10 years ago? So it was before Korina was in town.

24:52 - Yeah. Was it when, was it while Korina was in Marshedge? You know what? Yeah, I think it was.

24:59 - Did you know him? It’s a big place. It’s like eight hundred, nine hundred people.

25:03 - She may have been like maybe if you put him in front of me I would recognize his face but I didn’t know him, know him.

25:10 - OK, cool, so went on a trade mission, decided to stay.

25:16 - What a dick. But it’s pretty, it’s pretty chill. There’s maybe like you and Dagmar a couple of the other like trappers that like you get the folk that that ply the wood.

25:30 - I guess a question for you. Like what about this place, like the public house in particular, like give me a couple of– give me a detail that when you look at it like it makes it just it just makes you think like this is home.

25:47 - Part of its appeal is just that it’s very welcoming, like it has the huge an enormous fireplace at one end of the building, um that keeps things warm.

25:59 - Um, it always smells very good because there’s pretty much always hot food to be had if you want it.

26:08 - I just need to throw in like like for the last few months, it smelled like bone broth soup.

26:12 - There’s someone there who is happy to see her and that person Ceridwyn always seems to be happy to see her.

26:17 - So she always has this like gut level sense of I will be welcomed when I come here.

26:24 - And I think that more than anything else is what makes her feel like it’s home.

26:27 - Awesome. I love that. I’m going to throw in a detail because it’s something that just occurred to me the the hearth, the big fireplace that you described.

26:37 - So, like, I think it’s natural to kind of picture a fireplace like that as like those kind of like round stone, like fieldstone type things stacked up.

26:45 - But in this case, it’s a couple of like really big worked, like dressed stones just sort of like Tetrised in. And they’ve got like in a couple of spots like scrollwork runics like runes and glyphs carved around them, faded and worn away.

27:08 - But it’s very, very clearly like just pieced together out of like big hunks of Maker stone from, dragged out of the old wall.

27:19 - Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot.

27:23 - You are sitting there, you’re watching Ceridwyn kind of like paying a lot of attention to one of the patrons, laughing at laughing at what he says and telling him jokes and, you know, putting his hand on his shoulder or putting her hand on his shoulder and, you know, just being extremely friendly.

27:48 - And I’m just curious, like, what sort of emotion does that stir? I think it depends is the patron like local or are they just somebody who’s just passing through? That’s a good question.

28:02 - I think they’re local. Let’s give them a name.

28:06 - Odhran is humorless, which makes the whole her laughing at things that he says a weird sort of like juxtaposition like because he’s not funny, right? And he doesn’t seem to get jokes and but but but Ceridwyn is is not in a mean way, just kind of bantering with him and talking and filling the space in the conversation. Like I think he’s a farmer like most of the folks in town.

28:40 - But I think that he’s one of those guys that like you just for whatever reason, didn’t get married when he was younger and then like just, I don’t know, maybe gave up, maybe didn’t like never really saw the need.

28:57 - You know, I think he’s got a mum that he takes care of that is like has it been like has a lot of health problems.

29:08 - And so he doesn’t like get out a lot or never had a lot of friends.

29:12 - And then then she passed away recently and now he’s just like, I don’t have.

29:17 - I don’t I have no friends circle, even though I live in a village of 300 people.

29:23 - As far as you can tell, it’s a perfectly innocent sort of thing, but you definitely can tell that Odhran is somewhat taken with her.

29:30 - Korina response to the way Ceridwyn is acting is she’s being a good hostess.

29:36 - This is she wants to make everyone feel at home.

29:39 - And she’s been particularly solicitous towards him since his only family just died.

29:44 - And everyone in town knows that he doesn’t not great at friends.

29:49 - Doesn’t seem to have that many people who are close to him.

29:51 - And he’s been spending more time at the public house recently.

29:54 - But that’s because he doesn’t have anyone at home. It was it was a hard winter. Korina is not reading much into it on Ceridwyn’s end, but she is paying attention to the way he’s acting and she’s not saying or doing anything about it, yet.

30:11 - That ominous “yet” makes me think that this is probably a great time for– does the public house have a door? I mean I guess it would have to.

30:19 - Hobbes. I know you have thought about Stonetop and doors more than probably anyone else.

30:24 - Hobbes, like. What do you think, door? I like what we landed on with the the carved wooden doors being a status symbol sort of thing where you get a craftsperson from Marshedge to make a carved wooden door for your house when you finally made it.

30:46 - And it’s like every of every one of these doors is unique.

30:49 - And that’s like how you tell people’s houses is like, oh, it’s the door that has the thing on it.

30:58 - Gotcha. So what kind of door do people who don’t have a fancy carved door have? If you’ve like, just built your house and you haven’t made it yet, like you haven’t “made it” yet, you’ve got, like, either a tapestry there, like a heavy, heavy tapestry to keep the the heat in in the winter time or maybe like a woven reed situation where you’ve got, like, fabric wrapped around it and it just sort of plugs the hole.

31:30 - It’s basically like a thatch that you just sort of pull out and push aside maybe with some fur over it? Sort of begs the question of Korina, does your house have a door? No.

31:45 - OK. Her house is where she just occasionally, like, she has to have somewhere to keep her shit that isn’t on the floor of the public house, but she doesn’t spend a ton of time there. The public house definitely has a wooden door, though.

31:56 - So I think I think there’s like there’s like a carved fancy wooden door that has like a big hearth is like the main bulk of the design on it.

32:06 - OK. For the public house. And I think Alix like pulls it open and like steps inside, you know, like sweaty, smeared with dirt.

32:16 - I think they’ve got a bruise on one of their shins where they like got clipped by the horse trying to kick them and they just look like so fed up with life.

32:28 - I think Korina takes one look at Alix’s face and just laughs and then calls over to Ceridwyn to bring them a beer.

32:38 - Yeah. Yeah, I think they just look at you like, thank you, like.

32:46 - You’re a good friend to laugh at my misfortune and to bring me beer in my suffering like yes.

32:51 - Do you sit with with with with Korina or do you sit by yourself? Yeah, I think so.

32:57 - Probably. Yeah. Eilwen, did you like did you and Mirg go over there or did you like grab your own little spot? Oh I think we’re, I think we’re off on our own.

33:08 - All right. So for the record, the two of you see them there, Korina. You definitely like saw Eilwen drag Mirg in, Mirg kind of chuckling a little bit them kind of teasing each other, the energy feeling a little bit off. But, you know, they clearly were, were going to like chat and have a drink with each other by themselves.

33:28 - Alix gives like a traditional Lygosi toast.

33:34 - Right, we do the like, cheers. Eyyy.

33:39 - What do you think that toast is? I think it’s probably in Lygosi like I, I imagine it is like the cultural equivalent to like a l’chaim or a slainte.

33:49 - So who won today? You or the Bastard.

33:54 - We finished the field. And I’m not dead, so I guess I won, but I don’t feel much like it.

34:03 - Is that bruise on on Alix’s leg visible or? Yeah, like.

34:08 - Korina gestures at their leg like. How’s that, how’s that feel? Looks real good.

34:17 - I think it’s going to hurt worse, uh hurt worse tomorrow.

34:22 - You know the way these things are. Yeah.

34:26 - One of these days, I’m going to figure it out.

34:29 - I’ve tried apples, I’ve tried oats, I’ve tried sugar.

34:34 - The Bastard has to like something. Ceridwyn, like puts down a shot of whiskey in front of of of Alix.

34:45 - Follows it with like a bigger thing of thick ale, and goes, it likes not being punched! And I think Alix just like looks up at her with like a kind of fond exasperation and is like, all right, we’ll tell you what. Tomorrow we’ll make a deal.

34:58 - I’ll mind the bar and you can steer the damn horse.

35:05 - Oh, hon, there is. No, no. We’re just not going to do that.

35:12 - She kind of like turns and winks at Ceridwyn or sorry.

35:16 - Korina and like like slides a mug your way.

35:22 - She gets like, really ruddy color in her cheeks and she mutters something pretty like unintelligible and just sort of takes the drink and doesn’t make eye contact with Alix for a second.

35:32 - She smiles and leaves you guys to the conversation.

35:37 - There’s still no progress on the responding front, I see.

35:43 - She’s just being friendly. I will befriend the Bastard before this goes anywhere.

35:55 - Just friendly. When you two have this conversation, is it in the local tongue or is it in in Lygosi? I think mostly Alix does speak the local the local language.

36:07 - I think Lygosi is like is kind of fraught for them.

36:11 - It’s complicated. And we’re just talking at a bar.

36:14 - So, like, let’s let’s talk in a language that doesn’t have deep cultural baggage associated with it.

36:21 - What would she want with me? Might I venture an observation.

36:27 - You’re going to anyway, so be my guest.

36:31 - And I think they like they like take a long pause.

36:35 - And they like, think about it and, you know, I think it’s very much that moment of like in the show, everyone is like, right, and like now some, like deep considered wisdom, is going to like, you know, they’re going to say an aphorism.

36:47 - It’s going to be really wise. They’re just like.

36:50 - That’s some fucking bullshit, so stop insulting my taste in people.

36:58 - You go around with a horse named Bastard.

37:00 - Bastard’s not all bad. Just breaks your leg every now and again.

37:05 - It’s a tempestuous relationship, OK? Speaking of tempestuous, kind of at about that time, the the wind shifts a little bit and you all start to hear it kind of like hitting the thach on the roof and definitely seems like a a good soaking rain is starting up.

37:28 - Korina’s just like, ugh, I’m going to have to walk home, and this is mostly what her response is, like she doesn’t say that, but she just looks sort of like–.

37:35 - You live next door! All right. Let’s actually cut to the conversation between Eilwen and Mirg. So are you trying to get them to, get them, get them to talk at all, or? She’s just in Mirg’s face, like. All right.

37:53 - Spill, what’s going on? I want details, you’re going to tell me we’re going to drink every single drop of this shit that’s in this pub if we have to.

38:06 - I’ll even bribe the bartender to slip the good stuff.

38:13 - If you start talking. You are definitely triggering a move here. That sounds like both pressing and enticing.

38:19 - Yeah, exactly. So when you press or entice an NPC, say what you want them to do or not do, if they have reason to resist, which they do in this case, then roll plus charisma.

38:32 - Then on a ten plus they’ll either do as you want or reveal the easiest way to convince them.

38:36 - On a seven to nine they’ll reveal something you can do to convince them but it’ll likely be costly, tricky or distasteful.

38:43 - I have rolled a 10 and I have plus one charisma so that is an 11.

38:50 - I don’t see any reason why then that they would they would put up any resistance past that point.

38:57 - Right? So Mirg’s just like, it, it’s the staff, right? It’s the that thing and.

39:05 - Did you. Did you see anything when you picked it up? Yeah.

39:22 - I saw, I saw mum. And I saw.

39:30 - I saw da. Just. Just burning.

39:38 - Just. Turned to ash. It was all, it was all on fire.

39:56 - Yeah, me too. They kind of look over their shoulder, back towards Korina and Alix and and.

40:19 - She she was she was there, she was.

40:26 - And she was holding a shield? Like cursing the sky.

40:35 - The sun was an eye. The sun was an eye.

40:42 - An eye of fire. And I can’t. I can’t stop seeing it.

40:58 - I’m sure it’s, I’m sure it’s just messing with us, right? I’ll.

41:06 - I’ll get good at it, you know? What? I’ll make it stop.

41:17 - It’s what I do, right, I fix things. Yeah, I mean, I got, you know I got you, Eilwen.

41:24 - I got your back. All right, let’s get you.

41:27 - Let’s get you a good whiskey. Do you flag Ceridwyn down or do you? Oh yeah, oh yeah.

41:33 - And she she comes over just like like all smiles.

41:37 - What can I do for you two little ones? Can we get them a, get them a good one? Oh hon yeah of course! A big strapping young, big strapping youth like you like you know gives you a little smile and disappears behind the bar and then comes back in a little bit.

41:56 - It’s a small shot, right. She puts one down in front of you, too. Doesn’t make a big deal about it.

42:03 - Just sort of like puts it down, puts it down just sort of like like like swoops away.

42:09 - Remind me if Eilwen has mentioned this vision of hers to Korina or the fact that Korina is in her vision.

42:16 - Not at all. Secret vision! So the evening stretches on and it does like it definitely seems to have helped Mirg to, like, get that off of their chest a bit.

42:33 - Like you can tell it’s still bugging them. You can tell that they’re still like, you know, have a little bit of a cloud over them. But between talking about it and the whiskey that that is even even being nursed, that is making a big difference.

42:52 - The place starts to fill up a bit more.

42:57 - I’m curious, Alix, do you, like, step out in the rain to wash off at some point or do you just like.

43:05 - 100%. 100%. OK. Kind of at about the same time that you’re doing that or like as you’re coming in from that Eilwen’s mum is like basically like like in a cloak with a like a little basket, right? And like just like drenched like the water is just rolling off of this wool cloak and and she just pops in and like she sees you, she’s like, oh hey, is Eilwen in there? Alix like nods and is like, yeah, it looks like you got sidetracked on the way to the granary.

43:43 - Well good, I’m glad I don’t have to take this down and leave it at the bottom of the bottom of the bluff again.

43:49 - And you know, she like nods and actually she, her hands are full, she kind of like looks at you hopefully.

43:59 - Like, yeah, I like open the door. When you open the door she like kind of like ducks in and shakes it out and it’s gotten more people are starting to show up, right? So it’s got a little bit more noise to it.

44:10 - There’s a little more rock or raucous, but you kind of like get a whiff too as you follow or do you follow her in, or do you head back home? Yeah, I think so. Like.

44:23 - But yeah, you get a whiff of of of her home, her home cooked meal that she has brought to the public house for her wayward children.

44:34 - I think as they step inside, they just like they just like hesitate in the doorway, like for just a moment.

44:41 - And I don’t think they’re even conscious that they’re doing it.

44:45 - I think there are a lot of there are a lot of hard won instincts that Alix has, that they try they’re trying to like unlearn and when they catch themselves doing them, they, like, actively stop doing them.

44:58 - And one of them is like looking at crowded rooms as spaces where violence is in potentia.

45:04 - And kind of as you are doing that, Emrys is actually like beckoning to you and like waving you to and she’s standing by Eilwen and Mirg and has like kind of put the thing down and and said a couple of words, but then she looks up and starts beckoning to Alix.

45:27 - And I think I think that’s probably like what. Like what like catches their attention and like they realize they’re doing it and they’re like, fuh.

45:34 - Like immediately, like stop, stop looking at people like they’re just meat full of vulnerable holes. It’s like that, like horse with the gadfly thing they like shake that off. They’re like oh, nope, no, not thinking about that.

45:45 - And then they go over the table. Emrys is, is, is known for being extremely curious.

45:54 - So how does that curiosity and this is mostly a question for Eilwen, but how does that curiosity manifest most of the time? And in particular, how does it relate to the fact that her daughter has found like the biggest treasure trove of weird shit in, like, forever? I think my my intent with that was she’s always asking questions.

46:25 - She asks more questions than makes like affirmative statements about things.

46:32 - She was incredibly curious about the the scrolls that Eilwen started nicking.

46:41 - Was not particularly interested in learning to read herself? But has been very interested in the content of those scrolls.

46:53 - And so has been like the person that Eilwen kind of digests the material to.

47:00 - A question for Alix. So you basically taught Eilwen to read, right? Yeah.

47:13 - So you definitely recognize that someone shouldn’t be able to just go from not being able to read, to be able to decipher a dead language.

47:31 - And I’m just sort of wondering, like.

47:35 - What’s going on in your brain about that? Yeah, like everyone I met who loved reading could read like 10 different languages, like I don’t know how they learned to do that.

47:43 - Like, I guess that’s just what happens if you care about reading a lot and you keep doing it.

47:50 - I’m not an academic. OK, no, I just love that.

47:55 - I the main thing I’m actually chuckling about is the idea that that Alix has very neat penmanship for writing ransom letters.

48:08 - Look, it’s very important to be able to sign your name legibly onto the contract that you signed with the client.

48:16 - All right, anyhow, there’s a little bit of like like chit chat, a lot of Emrys asking, you know, like asking questions and asking what’s going on.

48:32 - And, you know, like what you guys at what what did you all get up to today? How is the Bastard? You know, did you ever.

48:39 - And then and then she ends up like asking some uncomfortable questions to Alix of like.

48:48 - Oh, have you ever been hurt that bad before? They just like find the pieces of the truth that without context, like work? And so they’re like oh yeah, like back in my like my mid 20s, I got hurt pretty bad.

49:01 - Still got the scar from it. And like with a normal person who is not going to ask a follow up question, and that’s a fine way to close off the line of inquiry.

49:08 - But like it here, it’s not going to cut it.

49:10 - Right. Because the next question is, oh, my God, how did you get hurt? It’s like, fuck.

49:16 - Right. Do you like actively try and to be evasive about it? Alix is very good at passive, passive evasiveness, right? In the sense that, like, yeah, they just give like short decontextualized answers and then people go away.

49:29 - They’re good at that. I don’t think they are at all good at actively trying to keep secrets.

49:35 - Gotcha. I think they’ve worked too hard to be a like honest, emotionally forthright and like functional person.

49:44 - And so I think I think at the very least, they probably do give away that like they have been in quite, quite, you know, in like a serious fight.

49:51 - Eilwen notices that that has been more than they necessarily have ever wanted to tell anyone and knows her mother and is going to try and head this off.

50:05 - Eilwen, when you kind of intervene, you know, your mom, you know how to like distract her and.

50:12 - Yeah. You know, you bring her down your rabbit hole pretty easily, which also conveniently allows you to direct her attention away from Mirgen who is, you know, while better, still definitely like a little bit quiet and a little bit like you can tell that, that occasionally when he looks at ma that he’s– or at mum, that he’s seeing like like he’s getting a flashback.

50:37 - The vision. Yeah. Kind of like while this conversation is happening, there’s the sort of like it’s not quite the like [RRRHHEEIT] record screeching type thing, but there is like you hear the door open and then there is like a kind of a hush coming over, like sort of like, like ripples out throughout the room.

51:02 - And it’s not a hostile hush at all, it’s more of a “… whoa. ” And Korina, you’re kind of like like where you’re situated, you can see why this is happening.

51:20 - One of the older trappers named Gorlas and Luke’s laughing because half of every Stonetop campaign starts like this. Good old Gorlas.

51:34 - Gorlas basically comes like limping in.

51:38 - And keep in mind, he’s coming in out of the rain.

51:41 - He doesn’t have a cloak. He’s got like like scabbed over blood, kind of like like a rolling down the back of his head, like behind his ear, like like raspberries, basically, like like scraped along the side of his face.

52:00 - His he’s missing one of his boots. He’s like like like he just looks torn up and like and he’s at the best of times he’s a kind of kooky, intense old guy.

52:19 - And right now he looks like something out of a know like a hammer horror movie, right? Like just he’s like the Harbinger has just walked in the door and and it’s just has like one eye kind of just like opened twice as big as the other one and.

52:42 - Like when everybody realizes everyone’s looking at him, he just kind of [cough].

52:48 - Whisky? And there’s a bunch of, that kind of like breaks the spell and a bunch of people are just like oh! Like go grab him, somebody throws a cloak over him and they whisk him over to get by the fire and he starts.

53:08 - Yeah, basically, there’s a good chunk of time while people are just like making sure he’s OK, making sure that he’s not dying and then everything someone goes and and fetches Rhiannon.

53:22 - Excuse me. And he’s mostly just sort of mumbling incoherently of, like, one word, two words, you catch “crinwin” you catch, you know, “being watched” you catch like “somethin’ big” and a few other details, like little snippets like that.

53:46 - When Gorlas comes and everything goes quiet, like instinctively Alix’s hand like twitches and is like halfway down to like a sword that is no longer hanging like at their belt.

54:00 - And then they, like, catch themselves and like flex the hand and then, like, relax it.

54:06 - Korina absolutely gets up and sort of sidles over.

54:09 - She grabs a beer and sidles over to– this dude’s name one more time, please? Gorlas? And kind of helps him sit down and says, hey, you’re looking pretty rough there.

54:23 - What, you want to tell me what happened? I’m not going to play out his dialog because I think it would become tiresome very quickly.

54:34 - He speaks in one word, one to one to three word sentences.

54:40 - The story that you get out of him is, so he’s a trapper, not a hunter, right? So he sets snares and then he goes out and collects them. Mostly small, small, small game type stuff, stoats and rabbits and the like.

54:56 - And I think one of the things that he is kind of most known for is he sets some snares really far out.

55:05 - Like he’ll spend two, three nights out in the woods going to like, like setting snares out further than just about anybody else will.

55:14 - And, you know, because. No, like, someone’s got to, you know, do the far out stuff and all the all the local area is picked clean. So.

55:25 - So he said like he was going out to check out on the check some of his furthest out there snares, and he says that he got a good.

55:36 - It’s like he was happy he got, there was a good like a bunch of coneys that he’d snared, and he was collecting them and he was in the middle of cleaning them when he got jumped.

55:50 - And crinwin. Basically, he’s he’s saying it was crinwin.

55:54 - Like look like it must have been crinwin. Little little little shits just got up on me. Should’ve, should have figured it out. You know, you don’t hear songbirds from the you know, you don’t hear that kind of songbird until later in the summer.

56:09 - You don’t hear, you know, like like boar squealing coming from the trees.

56:14 - And but he’s like arrrr. But they. The last thing he remembers is looking at one of them in the face and it had a rock in its hand and it clocked him with it.

56:28 - And then when he woke up, everything just felt off.

56:33 - And he wandered for he doesn’t know how long, could have been minutes, could have been hours. Could have been like he swears it could have been days.

56:44 - And then he found himself in a place that he’s…

56:48 - like it was he was completely off off bearings, he’s sure that he went instead of going back towards home, he ended up accidentally going deeper into the woods and he found himself in what must have been some of them old Maker ruins.

57:04 - And the description of the place is like a bunch of buildings that were like.

57:14 - A bunch of them were stacked stones, like big stacked stones, like the old wall, but even bigger like like white white stone and carved like scrollwork all up and down them.

57:27 - Number of the buildings were like, like they was woven out of trees.

57:34 - And and the whole place, like it was still spring there.

57:44 - But the plants were like all the grass, and it was.

57:48 - It’s almost knee high already. And the, the trees were already a-buddin’, even though.

57:58 - It’s hardly a handful of buds, you know, like on most of the trees around here.

58:06 - We’re just planting our grass. It’s.

58:10 - It’s tall. And there was this. I don’t know, like a trough.

58:20 - But. Big as this room. Maybe a, like a bucket? But low? And wide? Bunch of mud and water and gross in it.

58:40 - Statues like. Trees like statues and that, but then they they were still alive and they kept growing.

58:52 - And there is this. In the water, sticking out of it, I remember there’s a big old hunk of stone.

59:06 - And he looks up at the hearth and he’s like, with like that on it.

59:11 - And he’s pointing at the like the scrollwork, like the runes and carvings.

59:17 - But different. And. And somethin’ under that water moved.

59:33 - And I ran. Because. Because, yeah.

59:48 - I don’t remember how long I ran, but then I was I remember the color was gone, right? Like not all the moss and that was glowing, wasn’t there no more.

60:01 - And then I recognize, you know, like, I was pretty sure I was cold.

60:08 - That was I think my first real clue is that I didn’t have my cloak and I realized I didn’t have a boot and my feet hurt.

60:18 - Fucking crinwin took. Y’know, like left me like this.

60:28 - And my head hurt like nothing. And I knew.

60:35 - I wanted to get my way back there, I needed to leave, mark it.

60:41 - So I marked it and I found some of my snares.

60:47 - And I made back. And take that extend it by, you know, like, what, probably 10 times as long and you having to draw all of that out of him and so on and so forth.

61:03 - Well, you tell me, why do you why do you why are you taking him seriously? I think if Alix comes close enough to listen in, they will probably get the same read that Korina does, which there’s a difference between someone who’s spinning a tall tale and someone who is so frazzled by whatever traumatic event they just went through that they can hardly talk about it.

61:25 - Alix takes their like not yet started like bowl of like stew or soup or whatever the home cooked meal was and like brings it over and like puts it next to Gorlas because like clearly the man needs to eat.

61:39 - When he starts describing the Maker ruin.

61:43 - Yeah. Eilwen absolutely perks up because I’m steeped in lore about the Makers and their arts.

61:52 - Do I recognize any of the things that he is describing from my reading? I mean, like at a high level, this is absolutely Maker shit, right? Like, this is not Forest Folk stuff that he’s talking about.

62:11 - And definitely Green Lords, or however you would translate that.

62:16 - But if you like to spout lore about it, you absolutely can.

62:18 - I would love to spout some lore about it.

62:24 - All right. That is a nine and spout lore is plus INT? Yes.

62:31 - So nine plus two is a solid 11. Nice, so on a ten plus I owe you something interesting and relevant, sorry interesting and useful.

62:42 - OK, so the interesting thing is that’s definitely a Green Lord ruin.

62:51 - And there’s no way that a Green Lord ruin should or would be as well preserved as he’s describing it. Just the passage of time in a forest would have would have buried it and overgrown it and everything like that.

63:07 - So, like, assuming that it’s real and not a hallucination, there’s something we are going on, right? The specific useful thing is the tablet that he described, like the big stone thing in the pool? From how he described it and from the markings that he was that that that he describes on it, the runes that are on them are runes of earth and runes of spirits and runes related to rejuvenation.

63:44 - OK. How do you get that information out of him so that you can figure out that they are in fact runes of those of those things? Eilwen is the kind of person who would have like a bag with some scrolls in it with her a lot.

64:02 - And just be like, so, so. Like, once everyone’s been like, OK, OK, this is this dude is like spitting tall tales and they scattered off.

64:12 - We don’t get to hear about rage drakes, whatever.

64:16 - Be like. So while you’re eating. Which of these looks most like the stuff that you were seeing, was it more like A or B? Gotcha.

64:30 - This one or this one? Just like process of elimination gets to a scroll.

64:38 - While he’s eating and just kind of going [grumbles] like, and just like all he’s got to do is grunt and point, but gets to this, this scroll, that’s about like.

64:53 - It’s healing, sort of. But she hasn’t quite like managed to completely decipher it yet, but it’s got something to do with, like, healing.

65:07 - Earth, earthy healing? She doesn’t she doesn’t really get it, but.

65:13 - There’s a couple of them where he’s pointed out like, you know, there might also be some blood involved or maybe that’s just watering soil.

65:22 - You don’t know. Sacrifice of some kind? Yeah yeah yeah.

65:27 - But you get a follow up question. I don’t have a good one at the moment, unfortunately.

65:31 - I have a thing I would like to maybe do while all of this interrogation of poor old Gorlas is going on.

65:39 - Yeah. They make make efforts to get a kind of like soothing, soothing beverage prepared for this man that will do him some good.

65:48 - When Rhiannon eventually does show up and sees that that’s on the kettle, she gives you a good solid like like sniff of approval.

65:56 - Like, hmph. But I’m curious, Korina, is there anything that you are doing above and beyond to sort of like helping extract this information and keep him comfortable? I think a lot of it is like almost like reassuring him that I believe him? Right.

66:17 - But she does also… I’m trying to think what she would ask for.

66:23 - She’s aiming to get a piece of his clothing because she’s going to have Caradoc track his scent.

66:28 - I mean, like you could pretty easily just like get a rag and like like sop some of his blood away.

66:33 - Yeah. Honestly that’s probably what she does is just like casually takes a rag and wipes his face and.

66:43 - Keeps it. The business about seeing something in the water? That catches her attention, that would probably be something like Korina asks more about being like, what do you remember about what you saw in the water? Was it, did you see a shadow, did you see like was it reflective, how deep was the water? Like, was it a stream? Was it a pool? As you like are asking him these questions, he becomes more and more terrified.

67:16 - Or like like he’s clearly becoming, like, almost panicky about it.

67:21 - You definitely you can push forward and try and get him to tell you, but it will require a Parley, rolling Parley because like he does not want to.

67:34 - Like his brain is trying to retreat from that.

67:38 - I think I’m going to roll Parley. And I’m going to offer him a shot.

67:45 - Just get it out, like lancing a boil. You’ll feel better and then you can forget all about it.

67:50 - Yeah. Go ahead and– I think I’m going to aid here? Oh yeah.

67:53 - What did you? By. I think I think what that looks like is like Alix Alix like comes back over with the drink that is now been prepared.

68:01 - And like sits down, presses Gorlas’s hands around it.

68:05 - All right. So go ahead and roll it. I got a six and a four.

68:08 - OK, so two things. One, he’s going to spill.

68:12 - Right. But two, you. This is a ten plus, right? So that triggers your Potential for Greatness.

68:21 - Potential for Greatness is one of the Would-be Hero’s moves.

68:23 - And what it reads is once per level. When you roll a stat and get a ten plus mark one of the following.

68:29 - Note the level during which you marked it, you don’t have to mark them in order. So basically I get to go in and bump one of my stats because I rolled a ten plus doing this.

68:39 - So now I get plus one to charisma going forward, is that right? Yep, yep.

68:45 - Or I mean you could theoretically choose to increase your hit points or your, your damage die but it, like increasing your charisma absolutely seems like the most sense right now.

68:54 - Yeah. I’ve always pictured this as not necessarily you’re getting better in the moment but more like we are learning about your character.

69:02 - Yeah, makes sense On a 10 plus, they do what you want, right, or they reveal the easiest way for you to convince them. Between the broth and the whiskey and offering him, like, actually caring about what he has to say.

69:20 - It takes some coaxing, but he does get it out.

69:24 - You realize that he didn’t really see anything in particular.

69:29 - The water was muddy and dark. It wasn’t even that deep, but it rippled like it, you know, like Stonetoppers don’t spend a lot of time around deep water.

69:45 - So it’s not like we even necessarily have, like, a language for describing something big moving underneath bodies of water, right? It could have been something under there.

69:59 - Right. I mean, there probably was something under there, but it it felt to him.

70:07 - He didn’t see it because he ran as soon as it as he got a sense of what it was and whatever it was, it was full of hate and jealousy and anger.

70:24 - And he just got this sense of being small and made of meat, like he felt like a coney in one of his own snares.

70:34 - Is there any other questions that you guys want to get out of him before we start to wrap up? I’m not going to make you roll anymore. Like like you’ve basically got him to the point where he’s going to tell you whatever he can.

70:47 - What Korina wants to know is if anybody has any idea how long he was actually gone for.

70:52 - Gorlas is known to often be gone like two or three days at a time. And when you ask around like that, lines up with what other people like like the last time somebody saw him either in town or near town.

71:06 - So he’s been gone for probably about two to three days, like he couldn’t have wandered that far and again with, with that kind of a head trauma.

71:15 - So whatever it was, he probably didn’t go that far if he actually found something and it wasn’t just a hallucination.

71:24 - But he did also say that he, like, carved some markings on trees as he left and you have a dog who’s a very good tracker.

71:32 - So, you know, the rain’s going to make that a little bit more difficult.

71:39 - But, you know, like the next few days, if it doesn’t get too much worse, he should still be able to do it.

71:48 - I think Alix, like, beckons to Eilwen, I imagine we like to get a little bit of distance from Gorlas, right? Like because he probably not going to enjoy this conversation very much if he has to listen to it.

71:58 - I think Alix’s voice kind of like hushes a little and they’re like.

72:04 - You. First off, you OK? Bit of a stressful evening? We’re all good.

72:12 - They give you the like, are you just saying that or is that really true? Look.

72:16 - If I’m not, I will be. There was something they taught us back in Lygos in the church.

72:22 - It was caught up with some myth cycle or another.

72:25 - I won’t bore you with the details. But they said that each of the Things Below was like a like a fruit grown from some horrible seed in human hearts, this one grown from greed.

72:42 - That one from despair. There was. I remember part of it now, there was an old nursery rhyme about it with some of their names.

72:53 - And so what I’m wondering is: what grows from hate? And I don’t know if I’m spouting lore and asking you for aid or if Alix is asking you to spout lore and offering aid? Right. Yeah.

73:07 - Like, I think one of those two things is happening.

73:10 - Interesting. And, you know, I’m fine with you guys, with you all handling it either way, if for no other reason than Luke, you said you don’t have your dice handy.

73:21 - Do you want me to roll the third dice, the third die as well? Yes, that would be lovely.

73:26 - OK. It did not help. I got an eight.

73:31 - So something interesting. The names that are given to the Things Below are for these kind of almost unknowable, almost godlike entities.

73:45 - And that’s not usually what people end up encountering in the real world.

73:51 - What people end up encountering in the real world are things corrupted by the Things Below or emanations of them just based off of that feeling of of hatred and jealousy? And like being prey, I think, is like a key detail there, too? Yeah, that’s a good point.

74:11 - You know, I don’t know that I, Jer, have a name for this one yet.

74:16 - Even better. As far as the interesting thing goes, whatever this thing is, it’s likely some spirit or creature that lived there before that was somehow corrupted by an entity of hunting and hatred and and being a predator.

74:39 - And as this is a spout lore about the Things Below, I get a follow up question.

74:45 - Yeah? How can it be confronted? Oh, interesting.

74:50 - Well, Alix has told you stories of a saint from Helior, from way back when, who confronted it with nothing more than a light and faith, or like a candle and faith.

75:07 - But that’s preposterous. You clearly don’t have a saint with you. You’ve definitely seen bits talking about some academic thing. Yes.

75:15 - Well, the preferred method is to strike one down with Orichalcum, which burns away the impure.

75:22 - If you do not have any orichalcum crass bronze will do in– what that? Store bought will do fine.

75:31 - When you reach the end of a session, give an example of how you fulfilled the requirement of your Drive.

75:36 - If everyone agrees, mark XP. My Drive as Seeker is Respect: impress another with your superior knowledge.

75:47 - Was anyone impressed with my superior knowledge this time? I will flag, so we don’t do this every week, like I think Alix is pretty easily impressed by your knowledge because they’re proud of you, so like, that shouldn’t be where the bar lives in perpetuum.

76:02 - First time we’ve seen it on screen. Take the XP.

76:05 - My Drive is Charity: bring relief or comfort to someone who is suffering.

76:10 - You did that. You totally did that. Helped out that poor old man.

76:15 - Way to specifically go out of your way to get to to tick it off, too.

76:19 - Korina’s Drive is Bravery: face up to one of your fears which.

76:26 - She definitely passed the buck on facing up to her fear of flirting back with Ceridwyn.

76:30 - I was just going to say you should have flirted back.

76:32 - It dawns on me that I didn’t put anything in front of you really about the whole you’re not cut out for this versus what you’re capable of, which is something for me to kind of consider for next time.

76:41 - But I don’t think she got that XP. So next, describe how your opinion of or relationship with another character, PC or NPC, has changed this session.

76:52 - If everyone agrees, mark XP. I don’t think any of mine have necessarily changed.

76:58 - We just did a lot of establishing movement in this session.

77:02 - Emrys knows I was wounded in battle. How long before she starts asking how I got there? Eilwen had basically pieced that together already and was just not prying because they clearly didn’t want me to.

77:17 - We all got secrets. I’m trying to think if if Korina’s relationship with any NPCs changed? Possibly from “Gorlas is mostly full of shit” to “sometimes Gorlas tells the truth”? Probably you just felt about him the same way that everyone in the village does, which is like it’s old Gorlas, he’s full of shit.

77:35 - And now you have like a specific relationship with him that is on screen.

77:39 - I’ll take that if everybody else is OK with it.

77:42 - Yeah. Finally answer these questions as a group, did we learn something about the wider world or its history? I would say yes, we did.

77:51 - Yeah. Everyone, mark an XP. Did we overcome a threat to Stonetop or the greater region? Yes, I defeated a terrible horse.

78:05 - It kicked you in the leg! I still won.

78:08 - I got that field plowed. Did we improve our standing or influence with our neighbors? Only if you count Gorlas as a neighbor. Yeah, I was going to say, I reckon the three of us probably like improved our standing with Gorlas.

78:22 - When someone’s just gone through something traumatic, like I think having people there who listen to them and care for them and like being believed after you’ve gone through something really fucked up, I think dramatically changes your opinion of someone.

78:34 - Yeah, I’m down with that. And finally, did we make some lasting improvement to Stonetop or tangible progress towards doing so? I don’t think you’ve got it at this point. Like you.

78:45 - Right. We’ll get there. What I’d like to do is a round of stars and wishes.

78:50 - So the idea is that each of us offers a star to the game or to each other or something that you particularly liked.

78:59 - And then a wish is something that you would actively like to see more or less of at that or in not necessarily the next session. But in upcoming sessions.

79:11 - And it might be something you like to see different, something that you would just like to get a chance to do.

79:17 - It’s not necessarily a criticism, but it could be a criticism as well.

79:21 - So if you don’t mind, I would like to just start with a star of just the casual banter between Alix and and Korina. It was just delightful! Glad you enjoyed it.

79:37 - Alix do you want to go? My stars are like just one.

79:39 - There were so many, like, deeply wholesome moments this session? Was just like, god, I love these characters and I really want them to be OK.

79:48 - And then a specific star to Jeremy for just like your NPCs are so fucking good, the specificity with which their voices are observed is just like, oh, incredible.

80:00 - Well thank you. I really enjoyed the interaction between Eilwen and her sibling.

80:08 - I liked the tension there. I liked the relationship dynamics that it set up.

80:13 - But it really helped provoke all that, that sense of unease.

80:18 - That’s what I was going for. And I also really appreciated everyone giving me the opportunity to portray this useless lesbian being fucking useless, because that was really fun for me.

80:30 - And that was one of my stars is going to be I was absolutely delighted by that scene.

80:36 - I also very much enjoyed the Alix/Bastard interaction.

80:40 - Honestly, if I ever truly befriend that horse, I expect us all to get XP for making a lasting improvement to Stonetop.

80:47 - Improving your relationship with your neighbors too.

80:49 - Alix I also wanted to say I really appreciate all the little moments that you took to help develop Alix’s character.

80:56 - You know, being is becoming. People are always changing.

80:58 - It’s about what you choose to what you choose to change into.

81:02 - I wanted to throw a star at Kat too for the the subtlely like like capturing his scent so you can take advantage of the hound and track him.

81:13 - I’m doing more giving this dog backstory than I am Korina.

81:16 - That’s not quite true. What, what would you put on your wishes? I just would like more opportunity to have her confront some fears, but I mean, I don’t even feel like I really need to say I want to mess around with her whole destined bullshit because I can.

81:36 - My eyes work and I can tell that you’re planning to go there, so I don’t really feel.

81:41 - We did forget to do Destiny at the top of the session.

81:44 - Right! Oh shit! I chose the Destined background.

81:49 - And there’s actually like a mechanical function that we’re supposed to do at the beginning of every session.

81:56 - But yeah, so so next time we should just make a point to do that because it may have changed the way this session played out.

82:04 - I hope I find Alix’s like speaking voice more.

82:09 - Is there anything that we could do to help with that? I will think about it.

82:13 - I think probably it’s just going to be a matter of like it’ll take me a couple of sessions, I’ll settle into it, but like, I’ll give it a think.

82:19 - Sure. I wish I could figure out how to ask follow up questions.

82:25 - I’ll figure it out. If you ask an extremely broad reachy question, you might not get a particularly detailed answer.

82:33 - But, you know, like, I’ll do what I can to give you an answer.

82:36 - Additionally, after a session of, like, sitting in Eilwen’s personality, I think I’m going to actually change her Drive already? I know I’m the worst.

82:47 - But I think Secrecy makes more more sense with the person that I feel like she is.

82:55 - Secrecy being deflect or evade an inquiry into your doings.

82:59 - I always feel bad about having put that on there as a Drive? Because it’s such a terrible player trait to to encourage, but it’s such a great character trait to encourage.

83:14 - If and when you realize that, like your character is different than the tick marks that you’ve made, then like. Just feel free to change them.

83:25 - And that even goes down to like, moves.

83:28 - Hold on. You said we can change our moves? At this point none of your moves from your playbook have really come on screen.

83:35 - Like once it’s been on screen that it becomes a little bit of a bigger deal to be like, OK, well, let’s work on that.

83:42 - And, well played on just going for a fucking roll because you’re doing the Would-be Hero right when you do that.

83:51 - Well good. Like, well, here I go!.